Low-Tech and By-Hand - behind the scenes

 

These are my most basic tools.
Hmmm...perhaps I should explain. Think Tasha Tudor.

Tasha Tudor (1915-2008) was a remarkable illustrator and writer of children's books. And she lived a simple life, raising children, gardening, drawing and painting, milking her goats, and living what we would now call an off-grid lifestyle. I think she simply might never have gone "on-grid". And yet she was published for 70 years of her life, sending hand drawn and painted images to the publisher. No digital files. No emails.

If you know anything of her talent, I won't insult you by claiming any such brilliance. But I do share her love of things that can be made by hands. Not thumbs. Not fingertips. The whole hand. Both hands. 

At some point, it was confirmed that I have something called dyscalculia, which explains why I can't add in my head, can do geometry but not algebra, decimals but not fractions. It has everything to do with why I don't try to learn software and website development. I have had hashtags explained to me ten times and I still don't get it.

So I hand draw my patterns and illustrated instructions. Sometimes my drawings are quite lovely and sometimes a bit on the funky side. My handwriting is absolutely atrocious. I try to go slow to make up for that. There are always little glitches in the work but they don't affect the patterns.

There is a unique odor to pencil lead. And you wouldn't believe how well a pumice soap removes ink from skin. Is hands-on also head-free? Is my mind freed to dream if it is not being fed images from a screen? 

Do forgive me for remaining low-tech and by-hand in a world of click-this and #selfie. But I suspect you rather enjoy a little Victorian dressing-up and dancing to the Ramones. Probably at the same time. 

The party is at my house. I've got the tea, the fabrics, and lots of pencils. Come on over!

Darned Embroidery

I was stoked to have a pattern darning sampler embroidery tutorial published on the Sew Mama Sew blog a couple of weeks ago. Pattern darning is a simple running stitch that creates a design over counted threads.

Since the post came out, people have been asking me for easy to read patterns. I thought, no problem, I'll just google pattern darning and refer stitchers to the many designs online. Unfortunately I found the patterns a bit hard to read.

 

Online pattern darning patterns are usually on a graph or grid. But when the patterns are presented in the same way as cross-stitch patterns, with blocks filled in, I find that the maker sometimes means take my running stitch over one thread (represented by the block) or over two threads (represented by the lines of the grid on each side of the block). It's not consistent and the cross-stitch pattern illustration method does not fit pattern darning designs.

The best ones I've found show stitching between threads and over and under threads, where it actually occurs.

Since these are far and few between, I decided to start drawing up these designs on graph paper in the same style as this image which is from the American Needlepoint Guild.

I'm so excited by my fresh new pad of graph paper, I can hardly contain myself. I have managed to list one pattern of eight designs in my Etsy shop.

 

You don't need much to create beautiful stitching: fabric, embroidery floss or darning wool, blunt darning or tapestry needle, scissors, and a pattern.

Imagine your clothes magically transformed by small borders of pattern darning. Turn linens into vintage era keepsakes with simple running stitches. Pattern darning has a long and rich history of transforming ordinary textiles into works of art and imagination.  

Visit the Sew Mama Sew sewing blog for tons of sewing and stitching tutorials, challenges, and to meet fascinating fiber artists and designers from all over the world. There's a project for every type of sewing, from clothing to softies to quilts to mobiles. And try out a bit of pattern darning while you're there.